


If We Shadows Have Offended

by Stratagem



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: All humans have faerie companions, Fae & Fairies, Faerie AU, Ficlets, Gen, Mischief Managed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-11-04 23:45:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 7,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11001501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stratagem/pseuds/Stratagem
Summary: Everything is the same, except the paladins have tiny faerie companions. Because who doesn't want a salamander, a water sprite, a gremlin, a fuzzy hobgoblin, and a slyph on a giant magic spaceship castle?All the Voltron, with even more magic and mischief.





	1. Crash Landing

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own VLD!
> 
> What I am I dooooing. Anyways, literally it’s an AU where everything is the same but every human is chosen by a faerie when they turn thirteen. Basically humans have little itty bitty faerie companions for life! I dunno, I guess I really just like the idea of faeries guarding and causing mischief for their humans. So here, have some little ficlets and scene rewrites with faeries included. I don’t know if they’ll go in chronological order after the first few!

“Shiro! Shiro, wake up, let me out, Shiro, please…”

He blinked, trying to get his blurry vision to clear up. Something was beeping and whining behind his head, and purple lights spun on a console by his side. Turning his aching head, he tried to focus but images kept flashing through his mind: a sword cleaving the air, a fist coming at his face, electric bars, something hot searing his arm. What…what had happened. Everything was fuzzy.

A thin plaintive wail got through to him, slicing away the images. He heard frantic tapping on metal. Immediately he turned to a panel by his knee and popped it open, scooping out a wild-eyed sylph from a small compartment.

The five-inch-tall faerie hugged his thumb but glared at him at the same time. “How dare you stick me in there, I hate you and I’ll never forgive you.” She nuzzled his thumb and looked like she was about to bite him at the same time. He vaguely remembered putting her in the compartment, worried that she would get hurt in the main part of the ship if they crashed. It was the only way he could think of to protect her even though she hated being trapped like that.

“I'm sorry. Are you all right?” he asked, his dark eyes finally focusing as he inspected the spindly sylph. She seemed fine. Or fine considering… He twitched his thumb. “Fleet?”

Diamond shard eyes flicked toward him. “You’re bleeding. Why are you always bleeding…” Standing, she darted up his arm, feet barely touching his uniform, until she reached his shoulder. Once, she would have flown there. But that was before. 

“Where are we?”

“Home,” Fleet replied directly into his ear, a quiet joy contained in that small word, “I can feel it. And look.” She wandered out onto his arm again, posing. She was slowly changing from a spectacular black with white speckles space look to a smoky grey-blue, a shade of Earth’s twilight. As a sylph, she reflected the color of the sky, and he couldn’t remember the last time she had been anything but starry.

Home. Earth. Could they possibly be back after all this time? It felt like he was as old as she was now, a century pressing against him, but the memories were hazy. The urgency was there, though. It flooded in, driving him forward.

“We have to warn people,” he said, grabbing at the restraints that locked him into the chair, “We have to tell them about the Galra.”

A cool breeze drifted across his forehead, and Fleet pressed her tiny hands to his temple. Slowly the pain receded. Soft, diaphanous white hair brushed his cheek. “Can we focus on getting out of here first?”

Shiro unhooked the restraints and looked around, trying to figure out how to open the ship. They needed to get out of here, they had to make sure that someone started preparing for the Galra. They needed to find that weapon, too, before the Galra did. Finally, he did something with the panel that triggered the disembarking sequence, and the ship cracked open.

Red laser pinpoints instantly decorated Shiro’s forehead and chest, and he raised his hands to show he wasn’t a threat. Fleet jumped into a protective stance, teeth bared and what remained of her tattered wings spread in defiance. In the dusky light, he could make out Garrison uniforms and, beyond them, the desert. Had they really landed that close to the Garrison?

“We’re from Earth!” he shouted, “We’re peaceful, we’re not aliens.” What were you supposed to say when you were probably being mistaken for an alien invader? “But they’re coming. We need to talk to the commanders at the Garrison, we—”

“Be quiet!”

Three faeries landed on the edge of the ship as a fourth scrambled up over the edge. The last one eyed them both, his eyes taking in Shiro’s cyborg arm and Fleet’s torn wings with disgust. “They’re Earthlings, one human, one fae.”

Another fae, this one a slippery water nymph, darted up toward Shiro’s face, eliciting a hiss from Fleet. She landed beside the wary sylph. “I know you. You’re Fleet, and that’s Takashi Shirogane. What happened to you?” she asked, reaching out to inspect Fleet’s wings. “This is so ugly…”

“Get away from her,” Shiro said, brushing at the nymph.

She fluttered off on dragonfly wings and stopped at the entrance to the ship. “They’re from the failed Kerberos Mission,” she told one of the humans, probably her own, “They say there are aliens, so they’re probably brainwashed and have space diseases. Or they might be imposters? Very possible.”

Before Shiro could protest, a cold voice followed the nymph’s. “Tranq him. I’m not taking any chances. I want the science unit, medical, and tech out here immediately.”

“No, wait, don’t—” There was no where to move, no way to get out of the pod in time to avoid the tranq. It hit him like a bee sting in the arm. He felt Fleet dash down toward the tranq and pull it out, but it was too late. “Fleet, tell them about the Galra,” he insisted as the darkness surged, bringing a thunderstorm of panic and pain, “Make sure they unders…tand.”

“Shiro!”


	2. Firestorm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Keith and his salamander friend are very destructive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And intro Keith and his salamander, plus a quick glance at the other paladins and their fair folk.

“I feel like you’re going to jail if we get caught. I hope you don’t expect me to go, too. That’s a lot of iron.”

Keith didn’t bother looking up from planting the last round of explosives in the ground, the fuse exposed to the sky. Leaning back, he beat his gloved hands together, getting rid of the desert sand. “Do you think that’s enough?”

From his spot on Keith’s shoulder, seven-inch-tall Coal spat a lick of flame into the air. “You set ten of those, I think that’s plenty.”

“Don’t exaggerate. There’s only four.” Keith stood up and looked into the distance, where the makeshift containment shelter had been set up. He had been waiting for this night ever since he and Coal had decoded those messages in the Blue Lion cave, and something actually had arrived. All those days making connections and searching through the desert had finally paid off.

“It might not be anything,” Coal said. His scaly wings unfolded from his back, and he took to the air, fire dancing at his feet and along the edges of his wings. “Maybe it’s simply a space trashcan. Full of space trash.”

Keith gave the salamander a glare. “It’s not, and you know it. They wouldn’t be all over it like that if it was garbage.” Coal enjoyed playing the devil’s advocate a little too much sometimes.

“But _space garbage_ , Keith. That’s interesting to science types.” He darted over to a pile of rocks and landed, pulling in his wings. Even in the growing darkness, lines and cracks of red and yellow glowed across Coal, a pool of light collecting around him. His skin looked something like a lava flow, the colors constantly shifting between dark scarlet, yellow, and black.

“You wouldn’t be helping me if you thought that,” Keith asked, kneeling down next to them rocks. That was actually a false accusation. Coal would help him even if he thought Keith was completely off his rocker, especially if it meant he got to blow stuff up. All of the protesting and cautioning was so Coal could say later, when they were in jail, that he had been the voice of reason. Keith pulled a handkerchief out from his pocket and tied it around his face.

Coal looked at him for a long moment, blue-flame eyes dancing with mirth. “You look like a bandit out of an old west movie. Or a discount ninja. Keith, the cheap warrior of the night.” His laugh, like a bonfire crackling, rang out in the silence, and Keith grabbed him, covering his mouth. While Coal was a fire elemental, he didn’t burn those he cared about. However, he did quickly grow very hot, forcing Keith to release him.

“Stop being so noisy.”

Coal rolled his eyes and then tilted his head to the side, his long, pointed ear twitching. He glanced off to their left, into the distance beyond the containment shelter. “If we’re going to do this, now would be good.”

Keith nodded, trusting the fae. He headed to his hoverbike while Coal twisted in the air, arms and legs lengthening, body contorting, horns growing as he shifted from a humanoid form into a two foot long crimson dragon.

Shooting a flash of fire into the air, Coal grinned at Keith. “Don’t get caught.” He roared into the air like a rocket and went straight for the farthest explosive while Keith jumped on his hoverbike, flicking the engine to life.

Moments later, the twilight sky lit up with four consecutive explosions and Coal’s deceptively booming draconic laughter followed. While the Garrison troops headed out to check the fake rogue dragon attack, Keith sped toward the containment shelter, heart pounding with adrenaline and anticipation. He really had no idea what he was going to find there, but he knew it was important.

It was stupidly easy getting into the containment shelter now that the majority of the guards were gone. Taking out the one they left behind took longer than he expected, but she went down hard when Keith got a good punch in. He squared up once the main containment doors slid open, his eyes narrowing before he launched himself at the med-techs.

The element of surprise worked in his favor, and it helped that these people didn’t seem to be experienced fighters. One of their fae, an earth pixie, zoomed toward him, getting in his face, but he was prepared for that.

Grabbing a packet from a belt pouch, he slammed it to the floor, filling the room with light green powder. Nontoxic to humans, the powder was a combination of herbs that were frequently used in faerie medicine as anesthetics. He just had to hope it worked before the containment shelter’s powerful airscrubbers took it out of the air. Instantly the earth pixie dropped to the ground, but the other two fae clung to consciousness. At least they were lethargic and didn’t try to attack him.

There was a person strapped down to the table in the center of the room, and it didn’t look like he was an alien. Wait. Keith was at the table in an instant, shock making him tremble. It felt like he couldn’t breathe. Shiro, it was Shiro, how, his arm, that scar on his face, his hair— What had happened to him?

Resolve brought Keith back together. He had to get Shiro out of there, now. Unsheathing a knife, he cut Shiro’s bonds and then looked around quickly, wondering where they had stuck Fleet. If Shiro had made it back, there was no way Fleet wouldn’t be with him, unless she was- There. On a rolling table there was a clear cylinder with holes in the top and at the bottom was Fleet, curled up on her side. Her wings... A pang went through him, but he didn’t have time to be remorseful for either of them. He needed to get them out of there right now.

Unscrewing the top of the cylinder, he gently slid the sylph out and tucked her into one of his pouches. She would be safe there for now, and he could focus on carrying Shiro. Dragging Shiro off the bed, he slung one of his arms over his shoulders and started for the door.

That’s when he heard Coal arguing with someone. “What do you mean, rescue mission? We’re on a trash run!”

“You little flamebrain, get out of the way!”

“You tell him, Toa. Keith’s not the only one who gets to be a hero here.”

When Keith stumbled out of the containment entrance, Coal was automatically flitting around his head, back in his regular form. “Stars above, is that really Shiro? Where’s Fleet?”

“Yes, and in my pocket. What’s going on?”

“This lot says they’re here to help, but I’m not sure how much use they’ll be.”

“A lot, that’s how much use we’ll be,” said a guy who looked vaguely familiar as he rushed over and got on Shiro’s other side. A water sprite was riding on his head, holding onto his brown hair with her webbed hands. She stuck her green tongue out at Keith.

Behind the guy with the water sprite were two others, a short skinny kid with brown hair and a tall big guy who looked like he was about to freak out. A gremlin hovered near the skinny kid while a fluffy puffball was sitting on the big guy’s shoulder.

This was not a party. Why were they here?


	3. You Can Go Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith wants everybody to get out of his sand shanty.

“Are you guys just going to stay?”

Keith was standing near the front of his little desert cabin, ready to throw open the door so the intruders could get out. However, they were all making themselves comfortable. He hadn’t even invited them in, they had just invaded and now they were acting like they were taking up residence.

“We can’t go back right now,” the big guy, Hunk said. Keith vaguely remembered him from his time at the Garrison, though most of his memories were of how much the guy tended to barf during simulations. How was he going to be an on-board engineer if he couldn’t handle a simple barrel roll?

Hunk was laying on his stomach on the floor, eating chips straight out of the bag. At least he had asked before ripping into the salt and vinegar bag. He kept alternating between eating them himself and tossing them into his hobgoblin’s mouth. One chip was currently settled on her forehead between her two sturdy curled horns that wrapped backwards like a ram’s.

“Some of our professors definitely saw us,” Hunk continued, “and if we go back now, they’ll probably expel all of us. We have to come up with a plan before we go back.”

Hunk’s hobgoblin companion nodded. “Not _everyone_ wants to get kicked out of school.” She didn’t look at Keith, but he had a feeling that the shade was for him. She shook herself and her dark cinnamon fur settled down around her. He couldn’t remember her name, but she was one of the fuzziest fae he had ever seen. She was practically all fur, horns, and big yellow eyes.

“I’m not leaving until Shiro wakes up,” the skinny kid in green, Pidge, said. He was perched in a corner of the room, staring at the couch where Shiro was sleeping.

Lance shrugged. “Guess you’re stuck with us.”

But why? Keith sat down on the arm of the couch near Shiro’s feet. Whatever they had given Shiro must have been pretty strong. He hadn’t stirred or made a noise since they had dragged him into the shack and laid him out on the couch. Keith had made him as comfortable as possible, but he couldn’t stop staring at Shiro’s arm. He would stop once Shiro woke up, but right now… What had happened to him out in space? Keith scowled and then flicked his gaze over to one of the shelves in the room, where Coal was tending to Fleet.

The salamander had been fretting over the sylph since Keith had pulled her out of his belt pouch, and he was refusing to let any of the other fae come near her. Lance’s fae, a water sprite, wasn’t taking no for an answer. She sat on the edge of the shelf, having climbed the wall to get there.

Keith stood up and walked over to the eye-level shelf, ignoring the water sprite. “How’s she doing?”

Coal’s eyes were hard and unforgiving when he looked at Keith. His glow was darkened, more orange and red than yellow. “She can’t fly. The wounds are old…scarred. I think someone crushed her wings and ripped them.”

A sylph who couldn’t fly was unheard of. It would be like telling someone that they couldn’t breathe or drink water. Fleet had always been proud of her shimmering wings and she spent the majority of her time airborne. It was a miracle that she had survived something like that, and Keith knew that it must have destroyed a part of Shiro if he had seen that happen to her. If he had been able to stop it, he would have; Shiro was very protective of Fleet. Then again, if Fleet had been able to fight back, she would’ve tried to stop whoever had hurt Shiro.

“Why would someone do that?” The water sprite asked, her voice sad and sympathetic.

Coal shot her a glare. “I told you to go away.”

“I’m not bothering anyone,” she said stubbornly, “And if you’d let me see her, maybe I could help. I’ve seen wing wounds before.”

“No,” Coal said, stepping in between the sprite and Fleet, who was asleep on the handkerchief Keith had used as a mask earlier. Fire burned at his fingertips, and Keith automatically reached over and put a hand in-between them as a wall.

“Frog, get down,” he said, looking at the water sprite, “Before he burns you.”

“I am _not_ a frog,” she said vehemently, “And I’d like to see him try.”There was webbing between her fingers and toes, but that was about as frog-like as she got. She was a seven-inch-tall fae, all green and blue with long tendrils of teal hair. Her eyes were blue-green like the ocean, and her ears were large, semi-transparent, and fin-like. She had a long tail that ended in a fin, and right now it hovered by her shoulder, looking like she might pop Keith with it.

Lance walked over and plucked Toa off the shelf, putting her on his shoulder. He shot Keith a frown. “Don’t call her a frog.”

“How about toad, then,” Coal said. Keith sighed and nudged him back toward Fleet. Normally Coal was warm and friendly, much more so than Keith, but he always got grouchy when someone was hurt. It was worse this time since the people hurt were Fleet and Shiro, who were part of Keith's makeshift family. Shiro's family had been his last foster family before he was accepted into the the Garrison, and Shiro was basically his brother, even if he hadn't officially been adopted.

“How do you know this guy isn’t dead? ‘Cause he looks dead.”

If he could just get all of these people out of his shack, Keith would be about 75% happier. His foster brother was back, if worse for wear, and he wanted to make sure he was okay. Instead, he was trying to manage a houseful of randoms. Keith glowered at the gremlin who was hovering over Shiro, shining silver-flecked wings keeping him airborn.

“He’s breathing, that’s how we know,” the skinny kid said. Pidge. He must have joined the Garrison after Keith had been kicked out.

“And his heart is beating, which is also a good sign,” the hobgoblin by Hunk put in.

Keith sat back down on the arm of the couch, feeling exhausted and drained by all this interaction.

Everyone quieted down for a while, the only sounds coming from Hunk and his hobgoblin steadily demolishing Keith’s chip supply. Pidge eventually fell asleep, still tucked into the corner of the room. His gremlin, an eight-inch-tall fae with tech augments, curled up on his head, keeping a watch while Pidge slept.

Keith wasn’t going to fall asleep any time soon. He was too wired, too anxious. He just wanted Shiro to wake up.

As if sensing his worry, Coal flew down from his perch, holding Fleet in his arms. He laid Fleet on the couch arm behind Shiro’s head, so she would be close when he woke up, and he darted over to Keith. He settled down on the crook of Keith’s arm and heated up, sending warmth and comfort.

“They’ll be all right,” he told Keith softly, his voice gentle like an ember, “You know them. They’re tough. And we should be glad they’re back.”

He was glad. But now he had a thousand questions, and none of them could be answered until Shiro woke up. Better be soon.

 


	4. Star Child

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to delve into how each paladin met their fae, so here we go! First up is Shiro meeting Fleet, or really Fleet first deciding to grace Shiro with her constant presence. She is so vain. Shiro’s thirteen here!

It was before dawn when something soft settled on Shiro’s forehead, right on top of his bangs. It forced his hair to brush against his eyelids and wake him up, and he responded by lazily swiping at whatever was sitting on his head.

Pain like getting stuck by a needle pulsed through his fingertip, and Shiro yanked his hand back and sat up. There was a tiny bubble of blood on the end of his finger.

“I can’t believe you tried to swat me like a common insect,” said a voice like a bell, “How extremely rude of you.”

“Who’s there?” Shiro asked, looking around his room.

“Are you a gentleman or not, Takashi?”

No one called him Takashi, well, except for his mom and her fae. Pretty much everyone called him Shiro. “Not right now, I guess?” He yawned and pressed his uninjured hand against his right eye, rubbing away some of his sleepiness. The room was dark, and the glow from the old stick-on constellations on his ceiling didn’t do much to light up the room. Man, now that he was thirteen, he should probably take those down.

Oh, hold on, he was thirteen now, which meant… He went from tired to wide awake in seconds as excitement took hold. Reaching over to his bedstead, he opened a drawer and rummaged around until he found a flashlight. Flicking it on, he shone it around the room, hunting for the source of the voice. “Did you bite me?”

“Only because you tried to hit me.”

“Not really, I was asleep,” he said, shining the light at the antique globe of the Earth sitting on his desk. He almost missed the tiny hand resting on the side of the globe, right over the script that said ‘Atlantic Ocean.’ Excitement rolled him out of bed and onto his feet.

“You’re unforgiven, and I’m not at all sorry that I bit you.”

“That’s okay, I didn’t ask for forgiveness.” He walked over to the globe, keeping the light on it. “Can you come out from behind there?”

“Turn off the light, it’s too bright. Please.”

Shiro turned off the flashlight and tossed it back on the bed as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. The small hand slid along the ocean, and a tiny fae stepped out from behind the globe. Pale silver wings unfurled from her back like clouds growing in the sky, and she floated into the air, seemingly weightless. She was a fuzzy shade of black-blue with dim white star clusters dotting her skin, just like the sky outside his window.

If she wanted him to be properly awed, he was.

“You’re somewhat adorable now, Takashi Shirogane,” she said, flying over to him, “You’re lucky that you’ll grow up handsome. It’s the reason I picked you, you know.” The smile on her face was playful and mischievous and completely accepting, and he had a feeling that wasn’t why she hadn’t chosen him at all.

He held out his hand, hoping she wouldn’t mind, and she landed in the middle of his palm. With a graceful sweep of her wings, she curtsied to him. “I’m Fleet. I’m yours and you’re mine. Now you bow, Shiro.”

He grinned and obliged the sylph (he was pretty certain that was the type of fae she was, anyways). She was tinier than most of the fae he had seen, but she was, um…exquisite?

Yeah, that was probably the best word for her.

“Welcome home, Fleet.”


	5. We Aim to Misbehave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuing on, here’s how Lance met Toa. Poor kid, he happened to wind up with the fae who has the worst habit of getting distracted and being late.

It was official, Lance was going to be the only thirteen-year-old _ever_ to not be matched up with a companion.

He had escaped from his house, sneaking out once he was sure everyone was asleep, racing to the water to see if maybe his fae just got lost. Barefoot, he walked along the edge of the ocean, watching the way the moonlight shimmered on the waves.

What would he even do if his fae never showed up? It would be freaky to walk around without a fae companion after turning thirteen. Everyone was going to stare at him.

Plus, did this mean that not a single fae in the entire world wanted him? He wasn’t a terrible person. Okay, sure, he made bad jokes and cussed sometimes and there was that time he had stolen candy from the local convenience store (he had felt so guilty later that he wound up taking it back). But those little things couldn’t make him so awful that a fae wouldn’t choose him, would it? Even hardcore criminals had faeries…

But it was almost midnight, and then he would be thirteen years and one day old, and how was he supposed to go to school tomorrow without a fae? Especially after bragging for two months straight that he would end up with the best, most badass fae ever. All right, he would just…fake it. He would say his fae was incredibly shy and that they wouldn’t come out of his backpack. Sure, that’d totally work.

For a few days.

Letting out a muffled yell, Lance flopped down into the sand, looking up at the sky. His parents would have skinned him alive if they knew he was wandering the beach on his own near midnight, but there weren’t many people out besides him. It wasn’t peak tourist season and all the reasonable, normal citizens of Varadero were mostly asleep.

“What’re you looking at?”

Lance yelped and looked to his side, where something small was sitting in the sand beside his head. Startled, he rolled to the side and scrambled to his feet, spraying sand.

There was a burbling laugh, and the fae stood up, her hands on her hips. “You look so funny, Lance. Did you think I wasn’t coming?”

He blinked and then pumped a fist in the air, shouting his excitement. Dropping back in the sand, he got down on his hands and knees and peered at her.  

It was dark, but the moon was bright enough that he could make out her features. An average size for a fae, she still seemed long and lithe, and her hands and bare feet were large with visible webbing. Her hair was long, reaching almost to her knees even though she had it up in a ponytail that was decorated with teeny bits of shell and coral. Her skin was an ever-shifting series of green and blues fading in and out of each other, and she watched him with large ocean eyes. Fin-like ears broke through her hair and they waved gently in the wind. While she didn’t have wings, she did have a tail that ended in a fin. 

Very cool.

She tilted her head to the side and looked up at him. “You thought I wasn’t coming at all, didn’t you?”

“No...okay, maybe, but it’s almost midnight,” he protested, “Give me a break, you were cutting it close.” He bit his lip and sat back, still staring at her. Every fae had their own look, but this fae was so beautifully unique, he wasn’t sure if she could actually be his companion.

“Don’t look so uncertain, I’m really supposed to be here,” she said, walking over to him. She flexed her legs and sprang up onto his knee, landing like a bird. “And I didn’t mean to be so late. I kept finding things on the way here, and I almost got eaten by a fish, and it was a lot of fun.” Yawning, she sat down on his kneecap. “Here, I brought you this.” She reached into the pouch that was slung over her shoulder and pulled out something dull and round. He rubbed it off and then raised an eyebrow at her.

“It’s a bottle cap.”

“Right, and it’s a wonderful one,” she said, pointing at the designs on the cap, “It’s from a Coke.” As if that particular soda brand was sacred.

Hiding a smile, Lance pocketed the bottle cap with a nod. “Thanks…what’s your name?”

“Toa,” she said, “And now we’re companions. I hope you’re all right with that. You are, aren’t you?” She stood up and sprang from his knee to his shoulder. Gently she touched his cheek. “You’re my favorite choice, after all.”

Lance couldn’t help but smile at that. “Really?”

“I’m here, aren’t I?” she teased, stepping back, “Now, let’s go swimming before we go home.”

Night swimming? Without permission? Oh yeah, definitely his fae.


	6. Set the World Ablaze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Coal’s turn. Also in this AU series Keith is Shiro’s foster brother and Shiro’s family started fostering him when he was twelve. So now he’s turning thirteen and waiting for his fae.

The sun was setting, causing the surface of the lake to burn with reds and oranges and slashes of purple. Keith took a deep breath and closed his eyes, relishing the wind ruffling his hair, the smell of the campfire and food grilling, the feel of rough bark resting against his hands.

His foster family had decided to celebrate his birthday by taking him out of school and going on a camping trip, which was the best way to spend a birthday, honestly. That way no one felt like they had to throw a party or anything. While Arata and Noel grilled dinner over the fire, Shiro and Keith had gone to the edge of the lake to watch the sunset.

This was a perfect way to spend a birthday, but he was getting a little worried.

“You said Fleet showed up way before dawn,” he said, looking up at Shiro.

“Fleet always does her own thing, you know that,” Shiro said, “Like now, for instance.” The sylph had shot off into the forest a few hours ago without much explanation, only giving Shiro a quick reassurance that she wouldn’t be gone long. He was probably starting to get concerned, though he was doing a good job of not showing it. “There’s not really a specific time, anyways. It’s different for everyone.”

“Yeah, but I thought mine would at least be here by now,” Keith said. He ground his fingers into the log he was perched on, creating niches for his fingernails. Most of the other kids at school had said their fae showed up around breakfast and both Arata and Noel’s faes had appeared before lunchtime on their birthdays. He was getting sort of anxious. Secretly he had hoped that his fae would be there really early in the morning, like Fleet, so he wouldn't have to linger in anticipation.

“Hmm…” Shiro leaned back and nodded solemnly. “Maybe your fae is invisible.”

“What.”

“Or likes playing hide and go seek. What fun.”

“Shiro, no.”

“You should go looking for them,” Shiro teased, still wearing that fake-stoic look on his face.

“I’m thirteen, not three,” Keith said with a huff.

“And don’t I know it.” Shiro finally grinned and reached over to mess with Keith’s shaggy black hair. “Lighten up, I’m sure they’ll be here soon. I have insider information.”

That perked Keith up right up, and he turned to Shiro. “Wait, what info? What’d you hear?” He narrowed his eyes at his foster brother. “Tell me.”

“Can’t,” Shiro said. He shook his head and looked back out toward the landscape in front of them, where the sun was slipping behind the mountains.

“It was Fleet, wasn’t it,” Keith said, “She told you something!”

“Look, I can’t tell you anything or she swore she’d get even. And you know how she is.”

Yeah, he sure did. One time a girl had made fun of him for being a foster kid while Shiro and Fleet were around. Shiro had stood up for Keith and told the girl off then and there, but that hadn’t been the end of it. The next day at school, the girl was out and when she finally came back the day after, her hair had been buzzed. Apparently a rogue fae had gotten into her house and tied every strand of her long pretty hair into knots. Teeny tiny knots. Thousands of them.

Fleet could be quite frightening when she wanted to be.

“That’s not fair,” Keith said. He stood up and walked around the log in a circle before leaning back against a tree. “One _is_ coming, right?” Digging his toe into the ground, Keith felt embarrassed for even voicing his self-doubt.

Everyone got a fae, even him, but… He hadn’t talk about it much with anyone except for Shiro, but he was worried about being matched with a fae. What if they didn’t actually like him but everyone had to have a fae so they were stuck with him? Maybe he would get a fae but then they would trade him out or something. That had been a running theme in his life until the Shiroganes took him in, but he still half-expected them to want to send him back and foster some other kid, no matter how many times they reassured him.

“Yep,” Shiro said with a quick nod, “So don’t worry about that part. I don’t know why they haven’t shown up yet, but they’ll be here. Definitely.”

Keith rested his head back against the tree. Arata and Noel were going to call them for dinner soon, but he wasn’t feeling very hungry right now. Instead it felt like he had swallowed a dozen bees and was dealing with the aftermath. He wanted to believe Shiro, but he was used to being left out of things. Maybe this was just another time like that.

He was watching the sunset fade into twilight when he spotted something racing over the water. Two spots of light, glowing in the approaching dusk. Together they brushed the surface, sending a spray and a splash of fog into the air. Fae laughter pealed across the lake.

The smaller of the two glows split off, shooting up into the sky and then toward Shiro and Keith. Shiro held up a hand, and Fleet nosedived until she was inches from his palm. Somersaulting, she landed lightly in Shiro’s hand and then kissed his thumb. She was currently shades of pink and purple with a dash of white, like the twilight sky. “I expect you missed me.”

“Not at all.” He rolled his eyes at her and set her on his shoulder, but she climbed up onto his head and sat with her legs dangling against his forehead. “Where were you?"

“A lady never tells her secrets.”

Keith watched the second glow as it danced across the lake, a warm orange-red reflection showing up underneath it. “Who’s that?” he asked, looking over at Fleet and Shiro, scared to hope.

“Just your show-off of a salamander,” Fleet said flippantly.

Shiro laughed. “Fleet, you’re a terrible person.”

“But you love me.”

Keith’s mouth dropped open at Fleet’s revelation, and he raced to the edge of the lake, staring at the racing red fae. The fae spun through the air and then sped forward, coming straight toward Keith. Seven inches tall, the salamander hovered in the air in front of the thirteen-year-old, sparks dripping from draconic wings.

“You went camping!” the fae said, throwing his arms in the air, “How was I supposed to know you weren’t going to be at your house?”

He didn’t answer, he just stared. The salamander glowed like a lava flow, except for his piercing bright blue eyes, like the heart of a flame. There were small, yellow ridged horns on his head that swept back, partially hidden in his black and red hair. Fire flickered at his heels and elbows and along the edges of his wings. His features were pointy and sharp, like the edge of a flame, but he gave Keith a friendly grin. “You’re lucky I’m a determined kind of fae.” He held out a hand. “Hello, Keith, I’m Coal. I’ll be your fae for the duration of this lifetime. So keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times and hold onto your hat.”

Keith blinked but carefully shook the fae’s small hand with his pointer finger and thumb. “I’m not wearing a hat…”

Coal blinked back and then nodded. “All right, we’ll work on humor.” Laughing, he darted to Keith’s shoulder and sat down, one leg drawn up to his chest and the other resting on Keith’s arm. “Sorry I was later than I wanted to be.”

A tiny smile darted across Keith’s face. “It’s okay. I’m just glad you’re here.”

The fae patted his shoulder. “I’ll always be here.”

 

 


	7. True of Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk’s next with his beloved fuzzball of a hobgoblin, Breccia.

Hunk was taking a brief break from his birthday party to inspect his cake. Although it wasn’t really the traditional thing to do, Hunk had designed, baked, and decorated it himself, and he was immensely proud of it.

Baking was one of his favorite hobbies, and his mom and dad probably preferred the baking hobby to his talent for taking apart appliances and trying to fit them back together. While he was pretty darn good at it, he didn’t always put everything back in place the exact same way they had been before being dismantled.

But hey, he had certainly learned a valuable lesson from accidentally rewiring his mom’s industrial grade mixer so that the low setting was actually the high setting. Cleaning the entire kitchen twice had almost been worth it.

The birthday cake was sitting on kitchen counter, and Hunk leaned in to make sure that none of his cousins or friends had slipped into the kitchen and stuck a finger in the icing. Nope, it looked just as good as it had that morning when he put the finishing touches on the buttercream. It was simple, but he knew it was going to taste good. He just hoped that everyone else liked strawberry and cream cake.

His parents had insisted on throwing a big party at the family restaurant, but he would’ve been happy with just a few friends getting together or having a sleepover with his best friend. But thirteen was a big birthday, and his family always made a huge deal out of it. For people in his family, fae companions had a habit of showing up during parties, so he was sort of expecting his own fae to appear at any moment.

It was also a family tradition to bet on what kind of fae would appear. All fae that were already attached to the family refused to give any hints, but that didn’t stop people from asking. Back when his older brother Alex turned thirteen, Grappa Reese had been the only one to bet on a gnome so he had walked away with everyone’s spare change. People still grumbled about how his fae probably cheated and helped him, but Grappa Reese always denied it.

For Hunk, most of the family was betting on a brownie. It made sense to him, too, since brownies were friendly and helpful around the house. A brownie would probably give him a hand with all of his projects and remind him to clean his room more often. His mom would love that.

Honestly, he didn’t care what kind of fae showed up for him. He would be happy with any kind of fae that decided it wanted to hang out with him all of the time.

Hunk was about to head back into the party when he heard something lightly knocking on the kitchen door. Someone must’ve shown up late. Opening the door, he was surprised to find no one there. Okay, weird. Maybe something had just brushed against the door. Multiple times? Sure…

When he turned back around, there was a pile of fur on the counter, inspecting his cake.

“Uh...Hey?”

“This smells nice,” the pile of fur said.

She was cinnamon-colored, dark reddish brown, with a few glints of silver to denote that this was a particularly old fae. The faerie looked up at him with warm yellow-honey eyes and blinked. She seemed to alternate between walking on all fours and her back legs as she wandered around his cake, muttering to herself about craftsmanship and execution of ideas. A pair of big, pointed wolf-like ears poked out of the fur on her head, and they twitched back and forth in apparent amusement as he stared.

“Thanks?” Hunk didn’t know what to say, so he just sat down on a stool at the end of the counter. Was this his fae? A surge of joy grew in his chest, but he tamped it down. Sometimes his mom’s fae invited her friends over. Maybe this was one of them. In any case, he had never seen a fae like this one before, and he was entranced.

“Do you have any extra icing? I’m famished.” The fae settled down on the edge of the counter and looked at him with those warm, friendly eyes that crinkled up on the ends.

“I think so, give me a moment.” Hunk practically jumped at the fridge, flinging it open so he could check for icing. Finding the remnants in an icing bag, he handed it over to the fae, who immediately squeezed out a dollop straight into her mouth. “Careful,” he cautioned, though trying to tell a centuries-old fae to take it easy sounded silly.

“Noa Garrett, you are much-sought and hard-won, but you are mine, as I am yours,” the fae said, her tone formal but straightforward. “To you, I am to be known as Breccia.”

Hunk clapped his hands over his mouth to keep from yelling and startling his family, but his eyes gleamed. “Can I hug you?” he whispered, wondering if that would be improper.

Breccia laughed, a sound like pebbles falling on granite. “I would be disappointed if you didn’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Noa is my headcanon first name for Hunk! ^_^ Basically no one ever calls him that, though, because his family has been calling him Hunk for fooooorever.


	8. There’ll Be Peace When You Are Done

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a snippet from back when Shiro was being held in captivity by the Galra. Fleet was allowed to stay with him since Shiro told them she’s symbiotic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's supposed to be Pidge's chapter where she meets her fae, but ahhh, I had writer's block. So I wrote this instead. Sorry, Pidge, you're next!!

"Strawberry cake."

“Hamburgers.”

“Marshmallows.”

“Lasagna.”

“Hershey kisses.”

“Fleet, you have to pick something besides sweets.”

“But that’s what I really want right now, and you can’t tell me what I want, Shiro.”

“Oh, like I would ever dare…”

Shiro rolled over onto his back and looked up at the tiny fae. She was hovering in the air above him, doing lazy circles among the dust motes. Silver light glowed from her wings as she did a loop and drifted back down to him, coming to a rest on his bent knee. Crossing his arms behind his head, Shiro looked up at the ceiling.

The Galra seemed to be giving him the day off to rest up from that twisted ankle he got during yesterday’s fight, but he couldn’t get rid of the anxious tension in his shoulders. He always expected them to come stomping down the hall to get him, their heavy boots booming on the floor. The Galra med techs had already looked at his ankle yesterday, which was why there was a brace on it right now. That meant today might be a day away from the arena.

Even as he thought about it, his ankle seemed to feel better, like the aching pain was becoming duller…

“Stop it,” Shiro said, sitting up and pulling his injured ankle toward him. Fleet was kneeling on the cot, hands out, caught in the act of trying to heal him. “You can’t do that.”

She lifted her chin like a teeny empress and crossed her arms over her chest. “I didn’t do anything.”

“I mean it.” Reaching down, he swiped her up and lifted her until she was eye level with him. She pointedly refused to look at him, going so far as to turn her back to him and spread her wings. “Fleet, we’ve talked about this.”

Tossing her wispy white hair, she let out a little huff. “But you’re hurting.”

“If you heal me, they’ll figure out what you can do.” Shiro carefully took her miniature hand between his forefinger and thumb and turned her around in his palm. “And I’d be hurting more if they took you.”

The sharp look of aggravation on her face melted. “Oh, Takashi.” She pressed her forehead against the tip of his pointer finger. “I’d never let them take me from you.”

He was worried about that, too. While she had her powers and the ability to fly, that didn’t make up for the simple fact that Fleet was small and fragile. She would try to fight back and they would crush her. Sometimes he had nightmares that they tried to take her while he was asleep or being held in the druids' chambers, and when he woke up, he had to just hold her in his hands for a while to convince himself she was all right.

“Please don’t look like that,” Fleet said quietly.

“Like what?”

She looked up at him, a melancholy expression on her face. “Like this.”

“Okay,” he said before plastering a forced smile onto his face.

Fleet rolled her eyes. “Yes, the murder-stare is so much better…”

Shiro sighed and shifted so that his back was resting against the wall as he sat cross-legged on the bed, his injured leg making everything more awkward than usual. If they took Fleet, he wasn’t sure what he would do or if he would be able to go on without her. She was his connection to Earth, his last reminder of home.

“You’d survive,” she said as if reading his mind. Sometimes he suspected that she actually was telepathic but she always laughed and said he was easy to read. “You’ve got the heart of a survivor."

“How do you know that?”

“Are you doubting me?” The sassy way she put her hands on her hips made a ghost of a smile appear on his face.

“Never.”

 


End file.
